As is known, dividers of this sort are generally used upstream of control, selection and packaging systems to form multi-container transport units deposited on pallets.
The products to be divided are normally advanced by a product conveyor and channeled along a single lane up to a work area which precedes a packing or sorting zone where the pallets are formed.
In the work area, a divider is normally used to divide the products arriving along a single lane into a plurality of parallel lanes.
Dividers of this kind are known for instance by EP-A-1985558. The known dividers basically comprise a fixed frame, extending above and along the opposite sides of a horizontal transport plane defined by the product conveyor, a guide channel suspended to the frame and adapted to receive the products advanced by the transport plane in a single lane, and means for moving the guide channel with respect to the frame in order to line up the products in parallel lanes.
In particular, the frame comprises four legs inferiorly joined to one another by respective stiffening bars and superiorly connected, two-by-two, by a first and a second transversal beam extending orthogonally to the legs and to the advancing direction of the products.
The first and second transversal beam are provided, at the top, with respective transversal guide elements slidably supporting a longitudinal support element, from which the guide channel is suspended.
More specifically, the support element extends along a longitudinal direction orthogonal to the transversal beams and the legs and has opposite ends slidably coupled to the respective transversal guide elements. In practice, the support element can move along a transversal direction parallel to the transversal guide elements.
The guide channel extends parallel to the longitudinal direction and inferiorly of the support element; the guide channel comprises two channel portions telescopically coupled to each other along a sliding direction parallel to the longitudinal direction. A first one of the channel portions is rigidly connected to the support element and therefore follows all the movements thereof; the second one of the channel portions is instead able to translate along the sliding direction with respect to the first channel portion.
The means for moving comprise first actuating means for displacing the guide channel parallel to the transversal direction, and second actuating means for displacing the second channel portion relative to the first channel portion along the sliding direction.
The movement of the guide channel parallel to the transversal direction permits to displace the products to the desired destination lanes, whilst the relative movement of the second channel portion with respect to the first channel portion along the sliding direction permits to accompany the products right up to their destinations; this latter movement is made at the same speed as the advancing speed of the products.
The first actuating means comprise a first cursor coupled to a bottom guide surface of the support element in a sliding manner along the above-mentioned longitudinal direction, and a conrod having one end hinged to the first transversal beam and another end hinged to the first cursor; in this way, when the first cursor moves along the support element, the conrod moves the support element along the transversal direction.
The second actuating means comprise a second cursor also sliding along the bottom guide surface of the support element and connected to the second channel portion; as a consequence, sliding of the second cursor in the longitudinal direction along the support element produces the lengthening or the shortening of the guide channel.
The first and second cursor define, together with the support element, a first and a second electric linear motor, respectively. In particular, the support element comprises a plurality of permanent magnets, whilst the first and second cursor are provided with respective coils, which, when supplied with electrical currents, induce respective magnetic fields interacting with the magnetic field generated by the permanent magnets; following the interaction of attraction and repulsion between the magnetic field induced by each coil and the magnetic field created by the permanent magnets, the relative cursor is moved along the support element.
The described solution has the drawback that part of the energy supplied to the first linear motor is used to move the support element and the permanent magnets provided on such support element; in other words, part of the energy supplied to the first linear motor is used to move its stator part and the stator part of the second linear motor. This necessarily produces, on the one hand, a waste of energy and, on the other hand, a limitation of the maximum motion speed of the guide channel for dividing the products in their destination lanes; as a matter of fact, an increase of the production rate requires a corresponding increase of the acceleration capability of the guide channel, which, for a given amount of force impressed by the first linear motor to the assembly formed by the support element and the guide channel, is inversely proportional to the mass in motion.
Moreover, due to the presence of the conrod, the above-indicated known solution has a relatively large plant surface or footprint in relation to the number of lanes in which the products are divided. In particular, the known solution is not suitable for more than four or five lanes.